Sister Carol Hoverman, editor of the archdiocesan newspaper The Witness in Dubuque, Iowa, has her own compilation of personal accounts. As she says, “Each person has a unique story to tell and memories that will last a lifetime.”

My favorite of the bunch is the story of two Loras College students, Lauren Squires and Katrina Berning, video producers for their college TV channel, who got media credentials for the Washington portion of the trip. But when they got here they discovered they couldn’t get into the events because camera spots were limited to the major networks.

Rather than whine about their lack of access, they used their creativity to cover the events. From Sister Carol’s story:

They watched the Mass on the screens outside the stadium, and got text messages from Berning’s grandmother, who was inside. They began interviewing people who were also outside the stadium.

“We spoke with one man who said he wasn’t Catholic, but he told us he could really feel the Holy Spirit when the pope was near,” recalled Squires.

They also shot video of Loras President Jim Collins, who was at an invitation-only papal audience for Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America.

Nice — I love it when journalists find other ways to get the story. Here’s a link to their blog, and here’s one of their stories:

One Response to Students use creativity to cover the pope

That’s really amazing. Actually, I was part of a student media group as well (Franciscan University of Steubenville), and we went to Washington D.C. with credentials. We also found that we had no official spots and got texts from people inside the events! I almost felt like I was reading our own story as I read this. Our blog is http://www.franciscanpapalinitiative.wordpress.com if you’re interested.